The Best Smartwatch (for now)

After almost a year on the market (and more than eight months after we first recommended it) the $200 Pebble Steel (also available at Best Buy) is still the best smartwatch for most people. Despite pressure from Android Wear, the Pebble Steel looks the best on most people, is solidly built and resistant to wear and tear, has a battery that lasts the work week, is equally capable whether used with Android or iOS, and has the most mature ecosystem of any watch on the market.

Last Updated: March 3, 2015

Pebble is making two new smartwatches. In addition to the Pebble Time announced last week, there is the Pebble Time Steel, which has a longer battery, coming in June. See the What To Look Forward To section for more.

March 2, 2015:
Added the Huawei Watch, an Android Wear watch with notably sophisticated looks, to What to Look Forward To below. We also noted that the LG Urbane watch will come to the U.S., but there's still no date or pricing information available.

February 26, 2015:
In addition to the LG Urbane watch announced last week, the company is also releasing a variant with its own cell connection called the LG Urbane LTE that can make phone calls and receive text messages without the need for a companion smartphone. The display and internals will match the Urbane, but will add 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, NFC for mobile payments, a bigger 700mAh battery, and will run WebOS instead of Android Wear. We'll update the guide once we know pricing and availability.

February 24, 2015:
Added the Pebble Time, a successor to the Pebble Steel, and details of a new OS design for all Pebble watches to the What To Look Forward To section below.

February 11, 2015:
We updated our review of the Sony Smartwatch 3 in order to incorporate more recent editorial reviews, and to reflect software updates that improved both the battery and the fitness tracking app selection.

The 360 is our pick for those who want to try Android Wear. It beats the others in its category when it comes to style, band comfort, and customized watch faces, and hits a good price point for early-stage Android Wear devices.

This is the third iteration of our smartwatch guide in 18 months and also the third time a Pebble has taken the top spot. After more than 40 hours of research, and wearing and comparing nine smartwatches as well as some Samsung-specific models alongside the Pebble Steel, we found that nothing yet surpasses the Pebble Steel (or even the less-expensive “Original” Pebble) for adaptability, compatibility, and not making you look or feel like you’re carrying a tablet on your arm.

What is a smartwatch, and why would you want one?

Now that some smartwatch makers are on their third or fourth revisions, and the early adopters and reviewers have had the chance to put them through their paces, it’s safe to summarize these things: A smartwatch is a device that you pair (via Bluetooth) with your smartphone so it can show some or all of your phone’s notifications, as well as (usually) offer assistance in controlling music playback, tracking fitness, or performing other basic connected tasks. It’s a watch, of course, but it’s essentially an extension of your smartphone.

When it does its job well, a smartwatch reduces how frequently you must pull your smartphone out of your pocket. It can show you calendar reminders, text messages, phone-call alerts, important emails, and social-media stuff when you glance at your wrist. You can dismiss these notifications, fire back quick replies or mark pings as “read,” or decide that you need to actually pull out your smartphone and deal with a particular task in a more focused way. A good smartwatch will allow you to know what’s going on while keeping you from getting drawn away from whatever you’re doing in the non-virtual world.

Some smartwatches can be used for deeper work, but most work best as general-purpose, everyday devices. There are far better devices for tracking your running or biking (a GPS watch) or for tracking daily fitness via steps and heart rate (a fitness tracker). And because you’ll want to wear a smartwatch all the time, it should, like a regular watch, look good—or, at the very least, not draw attention to itself because it looks bad.

How we picked and tested

The Pebble Steel, Original Pebble, and my everyday watch, an Astina with a custom strap.

With the obvious caveat that Apple’s upcoming Apple Watch (shipping in April 2015) is a looming question mark, we set out to determine the best smartwatch you can buy right now—the one with the best combination of usefulness for the most people, good looks on the most wrists, and a price that doesn’t penalize early adopters too harshly for buying into what is still an early market.

Most smartwatches released since summer 2014 are running Google’s Android Wear software, adding features and a few watch faces on top of Google’s interface. (The watches released before Android Wear, with the exception of the Pebble, impressed few people with their looks or functionality.) A few big tech companies, such as Sony and HP, are working on multi-platform, one-off outliers, and Samsung has Gear watches that work only with Samsung phones. But the actual market right now is pretty simple: Android Wear, Pebble, a future Apple product, and a lot of watches we can’t recommend buying.

Smartwatches also differ in just how many things each wants to do for you. Some just show the time and your phone’s notifications (or a subset of them), while others also can track how far and fast you go when exercising. A few offer to store some music, connecting directly to your headphones for exercise or other don’t-have-my-phone-with-me scenarios. And some—namely models from Samsung, Sony, and Asus—offer special functions or customizations available only if you also own a phone made by the same company.

Another big difference between smartwatch models is battery life. Some watches have OLED screens that (supposedly) sip power for their pixels, while others have standard backlit displays that are always on. Some chunky watches accommodate larger batteries, while others sacrifice running time to stay slim. I wore each watch I tested for a full day—and most for multiple days—to measure battery life down to the minute whenever possible.

I of course tested and considered the functions of each watch during real-world, day-to-day use: Can you see the screen in the dark, in direct sunlight, and at a quick glance when in a hurry? How legible are notifications on the watch’s small display? How does the screen respond to touch—is it too eager or too slow to wake up? How easy and convenient is it to charge, and how well does its charging dock (if applicable) fit on or inside a nightstand? Which features does each model have that the others lack; which of those are things people will use and appreciate every day; and which features are not tied to a specific smartphone?

While not the primary consideration, the price of a watch is also fairly important, especially given that all the best models use a non-replaceable battery. (And because, as with all technology, in a couple years the watch will likely be surpassed in design and function by newer models.)

Finally, perhaps the most important thing about a smartwatch for many people is how it looks: thickness, width, shape, and strap. But because looks are so subjective, we took the opinions of many people, including other reviewers, into consideration when evaluating the aesthetics of various models. We also took the smartwatches that made our initial cuts and presented them to friends and acquaintances—men and women, nerds and normals, thin wristed and tree-branch limbed—to get their views on which looked best.

On the aesthetics of a watch (or: these are not for every wrist)

Before we get to our top pick, let’s get to the elephant in this virtual room: appearance. A watch is an inherently aesthetic purchase. It needs to match your personal style, fit your wrist, be appropriate for the kinds of situations in which you’ll wear it, and so on and so forth. Some people like huge and heavy watches, while others like things cute and colorful. Most of the smartwatches we tested have distinct styles, and while we think our top pick and alternate picks look better than most, we know they’re not for everyone.

For example, our top pick, the Pebble Steel, takes obvious inspiration from the Casio’s venerable metal watches (though the Steel is larger and more refined). Both the Steel and our Android Wear pick are versatile-looking enough to work with a suit, or with just jeans and a t-shirt. But they wouldn’t work in more formal situations.

…a big hole in the world of smartwatches is the lack of models designed for women.

Beyond that, it’s worth noting that a big hole in the world of smartwatches is the lack of models designed for women. You can blame this partly on size—women’s watches tend to be smaller than men’s, but smartwatches are (currently) fairly chunky, thanks to the need to fit all their components inside and to include screens large enough to be useful. But few manufacturers have even attempted to make smartwatches that will appeal more to women, and those that have have largely failed: There’s the Cogito, but it’s very basic and still pretty big. The Kreyos promised a special smaller strap for women, but the watch itself was still monstrously large (and the maker went out of business). Our Android Wear pick, the Moto 360, is now available with narrower bands, but the watch face itself is still huge.

“Put aside for the moment whether you think Pebble Steel qualifies as a stylish man’s wristwatch. Do you think it looks like a watch most women would consider stylish? To me, the design says ‘man’s watch’ — significantly more so than the plastic first-generation Pebble. In and of itself, that’s not necessarily a problem. The traditional watch market is segmented into men’s and women’s models. But with smartwatches, you can see the problem: women’s watches are (generally) much smaller than men’s, but how do you fit a usable display on a significantly smaller watch face?”

Molly Wood for The New York Times raised the same concern, saying, “The Steel, however, is still quite big and decidedly masculine. The shape and thick strap made me feel as if I were wearing my (extremely geeky) father’s watch.”

We hope this will improve soon—we’re looking forward to seeing Apple’s upcoming Apple Watch, which will be available in both small and large sizes—but for now, the small-smartwatch cupboard is pretty bare.

After wearing a good number of smartwatches for a few days each, and reading more about them than almost anyone who’s ever bought one, my conclusion was strong and simple: Buy a Pebble Steel. It’s especially appealing if you’re new to smartwatches, or if you’re not specifically looking for something made for a particular smartphone platform (the Pebble line works great with both Android and Apple devices).

The Steel uses a proven smartwatch platform, it’s a champion when it comes to battery life, it’s waterproof and very resistant to damage, and it has the most versatile looks of any phone-pairing watch you can strap to your wrist. These characteristics, especially at $200 (and less when on sale), make the Pebble Steel the most sensible choice choice for people simply trying to get a handle on their notifications or to perform simple tasks.

Some might quibble with the Pebble Steel’s low-resolution (144×168), black-and-white e-paper screen, given the crisper displays and color you can get in 2014 (such as the power-saving but crisp 320×320 AMOLED screen on the G Watch R). But the screen is clear, especially for text; it’s visible in both direct sunlight and utter darkness (thanks to an automatic or manual backlight); and it allows the Steel to provide outstanding battery life. And, heck, some people might even get a kick out of the screen’s retro feel—or at least learn to love it. (The Steel comes with three standard, mostly subtle watch faces, though you can add more.)

Notifications are really what smartwatches are about, and the Pebble ably handles alerts from both Android phones and iPhones. Since Pebble’s January 2013 debut, the device’s support for each platform has improved; and Android- and iPhone-connected Pebbles have more in common than ever now, thanks to an update that debuted Android-Wear-based notification actions as a test version in December 2014, and officially in February 2015. This update means that when used with an Android smartphone, Pebble watches can now respond to notifications from certain apps as if the Pebble were an Android Wear watch, allowing you to quickly send SMS replies, open apps on your phone, and approve/deny other requests. Perhaps most importantly, this addition lets Android Pebble owners dismiss phone notifications from their watch, eliminating a minorly annoying double duty.

Out of the box, the Pebble Steel—along with the standard Pebble—comes with no specific “apps” loaded. It can set alarms, control your phone’s music playback, and show notifications for phone calls; email, SMS, MMS, and WhatsApp messages; Twitter and Facebook interactions; Google Hangouts and Chat; calendar reminders; and any other app you enable to pass through in its settings. For many people, that’s all the smartwatch you need, and the Pebble won’t bother you to try to do more.

However, any app on your phone that can display notifications (for example, in Android’s notification tray, or in iOS’s Notification Center) can also push alerts to your Pebble; some apps, such as RunKeeper, integrate well with a Pebble on their own. And by installing certain apps, you can even send basic replies, “like” and “favorite” social-media posts, and perform other quick actions on alerts.

A nice bonus with the Pebble is that the latest versions of its firmware and the Pebble smartphone app use an opt-in process in the settings screen of the Pebble app on your smartphone for choosing to allow an app’s notifications to come to your watch. (This beats the opt-out tedium of Android Wear, where all notifications are replicated on your watch by default.) This means that you can allow Slack mentions, weather alerts, and Uber updates to come through, but keep alerts for breaking news and social stuff on your phone. The inclusion of a do-not-disturb mode is also handy, so you’re not woken up at 3 a.m. by Facebook messages from your friend in Australia. (Alternatively, you can just turn your device off overnight, as you probably don’t need it then, and squeeze even more battery life out of it—as much as another full day over the course of a week.)

As for additional apps, the Pebble app world is a lot like the Android app world, for better and for worse. Some big names support the Pebble, including Evernote, RunKeeper, Yelp, Foursquare, ESPN, and the Jawbone and Misfit fitness tracking systems. You’ll also find 1,100 native apps made by independent developers. In nearly two years of personal use of a Pebble smartwatch, I’ve found apps for specific cities’ bus and train systems; for responding to text messages with more options than Android Wear; for monitoring server/website uptime; for timing AeroPress coffee extractions; for monitoring sleep, steps, and caffeine intake; for controlling just about every home-theater and music system—you get the picture.

You’ll find the same general variety of add-on watch faces for Pebble as you will for Android Wear: many takes on classic hands, movements, and displays; and some with integrated weather or fitness stats. The Pebble, however, currently has a much wider selection for those who want to geek out on Star Trek, anime, and other niche faces.

On the whole, Pebble offers most of its features, apps, and watch faces to both iPhone and Android users. The companion Pebble app is regularly updated for both platforms, and its “store” and features are improving at a steady clip. Overall, Android has the edge when it comes to high-powered apps and customization, and do-anything wonders like PebbleTasker or Glance.

Many smartwatches offer similar connections and integrations, and some even extend these integrations a bit more deeply. But none of the competition can match the battery life of Pebble smartwatches. My standard Pebble, shipped to me in February 2013, still gives me roughly 80 hours of active time before it hits the 20-percent low-battery warning. That’s five days of always-on connectivity. If I turn the watch off at night, which I don’t mind doing, I get a full week of use before needing to charge. The Pebble Steel has the same hardware and battery as the Pebble, and indeed, a brand-new Pebble Steel lasted just over 82 hours hours before shutting down.

On the design front, after wearing and comparing most of the Android Wear watches, our fondness for Pebble’s offerings carries over from the original version of this guide. The 46 mm tall by 34 mm wide Steel is subtle and thoughtful, while most smartwatches are neither. You have your choice of 4,300 watch faces: classic, subtle, or nerd-watch-y; there are even completely goofy conversation starters. With the right face, you can wear a Steel in a business-casual environment and it will fit right in. (The standard Steel, sold through Amazon and Best Buy for $200, uses a leather watch band, while a version that includes both metal and leather bands is available for $220 directly from Pebble.)

The Steel’s band interlaces with several metal “teeth” on the body of the watch, and a very narrow screw (rather than a spring-tension bar, like the ones used on most watches) holds the two together. (See the photo of the Steel above.) The author of the first edition of this guide, Tim Barribeau, talked to Sky Van Iderstine of Strapping Fellow, a maker of custom leather watch straps, and Sky said, “The (screw) design seems like it would be much sturdier and more secure than a spring bar.” But the unique design means you can’t just buy a new band from your local mall kiosk. Unsurprisingly, however, third-party options are already starting to pop up (including converters for traditional straps), and Sky told us that you could probably modify a traditional band to fit the Steel if you were up to it: “I would think anyone with an x-acto knife could modify their existing strap.” Switching among Pebble’s own straps is simple enough when you get the hang of it, but requires the exactingly small screwdriver that comes with the Steel—the one in your eyeglass-repair kit is too large.

Both the standard and Steel versions of the Pebble are waterproof to 5 atmospheres (or to a depth of roughly 40 meters, in layman’s terms), so they can survive a dip in the pool. That being said, the Steel’s stock bands aren’t designed for extreme activities: The leather version will likely be fine with the occasional splash, but it probably won’t survive frequent soakings, and the metal band is too heavy and clunky for use as a sports watch. For those who want to bring a Pebble on regular runs and use it for other outdoor exercises, the original model might be a smarter buy, given that it will cost less to replace; alternatively, you could swap in an activity-friendly band.

Who else likes it

A new Android Wear or Samsung smartwatch seems to arrive every month, and, yet major publications continue to give the Pebble Steel their top recommendation.

The Verge sees the Pebble Steel as the “best option for most people,” and says it “looks good on most anyone’s wrist.” The Verge’s Nilay Patel previously suggested that you could “Throw (the Steel) in a glass case full of Fossils at Macy’s and it would fit right in.”

The New York Times‘ Molly Wood cites the Steel’s “attractive stainless steel and an elegant, brushed-metal bezel,” and notes that “the whole package feels premium.” The Steel is CNET’s top holiday wearable pick because it has “good battery life, a crisp display, is waterproof, and it’s iOS and Android-compatible.” At the Steel’s early-2014 debut, Gizmodo said, “The Best Smartwatch, Now Also Beautiful,” commenting that it’s the best of the available crop of options, but that it might fall behind as new options come to the market. Other plaudits from AppleInsider, Pocket-Lint, and Engadget repeat similar points of praise: It does just what you need it to, and no more, with generally accessible style.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

There’s no sense in beating around the bush here: The Pebble is a flawed device. It’s better than the competition, and Tim found himself liking it more than he thought he would in our initial guide. But even today, it still has a number of issues—some with the Pebble itself, and some with the general technology.

On the design front, the Pebble’s proprietary band attachment makes it difficult to use alternative bands. But at least you can change bands, because we’re not especially impressed with the stock bands, leather or metal. The leather is “genuine leather,” which is the lowest grade you can have while still coming from an actual animal (though this is also the case with most other Android Wear watches). The metal band is likewise fairly low-quality, and removing links from it is a real hassle. The way the band clasps on the bottom also means you’ll feel some scrapes on, say, the palm rest of an aluminum MacBook.

Similarly, we’re not convinced of the long-term durability of either band. Even though the watch is waterproof, the leather band seems unlikely to survive frequent dunkings. Sky Van Iderstine concurs, saying, “I wouldn’t expect that strap to last very long at all with repeated water exposure.” Because of this, active use is probably the one area where we prefer the original Pebble to the Steel—the Steel is clearly not designed for intense physical activity.

We also saw a minor issue with body construction on one watch. While the Steel generally feels well put together, our first review unit had a problem where the glass front wasn’t perfectly aligned with the body, resulting in a pronounced gap along the top edge of the display (when looking at the watch on your wrist) and a very slight glass lip along the bottom. This didn’t cause any real problems, but it seems to indicate variance in manufacturing quality. Indeed, we purchased an additional Pebble Steel (nine months after receiving the first) while updating this guide, and it had no such cosmetic issues.

The Steel’s magnetic-connection, induction charging cable is better at staying attached to your Pebble than the standard Pebble’s cable and connector. Unlike most smartwatches, though, you can’t use a micro-USB cable; you lose or snap your Pebble’s cable, and it won’t work until you get a new one. (This charging design, instead of a standard micro-USB cable, is used to preserve the Steel’s waterproof seal.) And charging the Pebble while in your bag (say, connected to a portable battery pack) is quite tricky, because the watch can easily become disconnected from the charging cable.

Despite the many available apps for the Pebble, the app market is still in its early days…

Despite the many available apps for the Pebble, the app market is still in its early days, and thus populated with much kitsch and mediocrity. The watch’s internal storage can hold only eight faces and apps (though more can be held in reserve in an online “locker”). This has given rise to apps that pack many watch faces into one “space,” or augment a single app or watch face with a number of add-on tools. This approach feels a bit unwieldy, especially when it clutters up app and watch face search results.

Also, if you want to know how much juice you have left, it’s not convenient to find out. The Pebble doesn’t show its remaining battery life on any of the stock watch faces—there’s just a “fill-gauge” graphic in the watch’s settings; you also get vibration warnings when battery level dips to 20 percent and then 10 percent. There are downloadable watch faces that put a battery-level meter on the watch face, but even they offer only 10-percent increments.

Finally, while the process for pairing the Pebble with your smartphone via Bluetooth has improved since earlier versions, it still isn’t great. Bluetooth is far from a perfect technology, but Pebble’s pairing process is noticeably quirkier than speakers or headsets. When Bluetooth is on, the Pebble app will constantly look for your watch until you jump into the smartphone app and tell it to cool off. If you’re having trouble pairing, the watch and smartphone app (both iOS and Android) offer no real clues or messages about why your Pebble might or might not be pairing correctly or unexpectedly dropping out. And if alerts are not coming through to a supposedly connected Pebble, your guess is as good as anyone’s as to why not. Again, this has improved with a succession of firmware and app updates, but for a device that is sometimes your sole notifier of phone calls and texts, transparent stability is key.

Yet the Pebble Steel’s flaws are mostly annoyances, not fundamental problems with its core services. It displays (and handles) notifications from your phone, and it does so for five or more days at a time without a charge. Its app store is popular, if not streamlined or tightly curated, and it can gain new capabilities and controls via those apps. It’s the best overall package in the smartwatch market right now.

The Android Wear pick

The 360 is our pick for those who want to try Android Wear. It beats the others in its category when it comes to style, band comfort, and customized watch faces, and hits a good price point for early-stage Android Wear devices.

Despite the popularity of Android phones, Android Wear still feels like an early-stage, niche platform for people who really enjoy their Android and Google Now setups–and don’t mind talking to their wrist a lot and trying out early-stage software. But of the six Android Wear watches we tested, the Moto 360 offers the best combination of good hardware, useful features, a design that feels (and looks) good on the wrist, and a reasonable price. It’s the best option for most wrists and lifestyles.

The 360 is most notable among Android Wear devices for its display. The round, Gorilla Glass screen features edge-to-edge pixels and is embedded in a machined, polished metal ring. These days, it’s no longer the only round display on a smartwatch (see the LG G Watch R), but it’s still the most distinctive, and it helps make the Moto 360 the smartwatch that’s least defined by being bulky, male-oriented, or utterly nerdy. Of the fashion-conscious people I asked to rate our collection of Android Wear watches, most gravitated to the 360. And, as with the Pebble Steel, its appearance and overall design are a good fit for both casual and business-casual settings, though not formal ones.

Of the people whose fashion input I surveyed, perhaps the most qualified was a friend who once worked in a Dakota Watch Company retail kiosk and now holds a firm disdain for cheap or mediocre watches. Looking at the 360, she said, “This one isn’t awful.” Even people who found the 360’s display to be a bit thick—“It’s a hockey puck on your wrist”— preferred it over square watches that are often just as thick, thanks to large bezels framing small screens that make the extra bezel space seem wasteful.

Other reviewing publications agree that the 46-mm-diameter 360 is not like its boxy cousins. The Verge called it “easily the best looking (smartwatch) you can buy.” Gizmodo cites a “consensus among design nerds, tech enthusiasts, (and) random people” in summing it up, “Like Derek Zoolander, it’s really, really, ridiculously good-looking.” And The Guardian says the 360 “blends in with clothing, looking much more like a watch than other smartwatches: it is a smartwatch masquerading as a classic time piece rather than a piece of technology ostentatiously strapped to the arm.”

Four of Motorola’s round faces for the 360. Each can take a light or dark background and change its accent color; some let you toggle the date display.

Since Android Wear watches are roughly similar when it comes to the hardware inside, they distinguish themselves from competitors by price, feature set, and each model’s custom watch faces and companion apps for your phone. Motorola’s watch faces make full use of the device’s round screen, the company seems to sweat the details when designing those faces, and you can customize many aspects of them with the Motorola Connect app. As of late December, you can also download and buy third-party faces in the Google Play Store.

Built into the back of the Moto 360 is a real-time heart-rate monitor, and given the way the 360 fits on your wrist, getting a reading is no problem—that’s definitely not the case with all watches, and most cheaper Android Wear models either have no monitor or require you to hold your finger on the watch’s bezel. You can set Google’s health-tracking platform, Google Fit, to monitor your heart rate throughout the day, and provide you with an end-of-day report on how often you were active, sitting, or otherwise doing something or nothing. (Motorola allows you to automatically sync your heart-rate readings to a Moto Body account, but Google Fit is a smarter option, integrating with more exercise and health systems.) Like other Android Wear devices, the 360 can passively count your steps using its internal motion sensors. You might not take the 360 jogging or kayaking, but this kind of general health logging can be useful for people not willing to wear a dedicated fitness tracker.

The Connect app can also help you track down a lost 360, though it can show you only the last location when your watch was in communication with your phone.

The 360’s slick charging dock is magnetic, doesn’t require precise positioning to start charging, and looks like it was made for a nightstand or desk. The Moto 360 also follows the Qi inductive-charging standard, so you can use any Qi-compatible magnetic charger. (Most of the smartwatches we tested charge using either a custom dock that clips or locks magnetically onto the the watch; Sony’s SmartWatch 3 sports an actual micro-USB port that adds notable bulk to the watch.)

When the 360 was first released, it was simultaneously praised for its breakout looks and knocked for its slow processor, short battery life, and occasional conflict between its round screen and Android Wear’s mostly square update “cards.” Thanks to subsequent software updates, most of those problems have been alleviated, if not entirely solved. If the 360’s performance or response time was slower than other Android Wear watches, I did not notice it in two months of testing. And battery life, while still very much a charge-every-night amount, has, in the eyes of many observers and Reddit posters, “dramatically” improved after a fall software update.

It’s worth noting that the 360 offers an automatic screen-brightness option, which is well worth using. Most other watches require you to choose a constant brightness level from 1 to 6, and getting back to that setting—say, when you move from bright light outside to a dimmer indoor environment—is not convenient.

The Moto 360 on a smaller wrist.

The Moto 360 on a larger wrist.

Flaws (some for the 360, some for Android Wear)

The Moto 360 is very far from a perfect product. But it’s worth distinguishing what could be improved on the watch itself, and what’s due to weaknesses of Android Wear.

The 360’s battery life, while notably improved since launch, still isn’t anything to brag about. In fact, with its ambient screen mode on—showing a dimmed, color-stripped watch face at all times, until the battery is nearly gone—our new Moto 360 lasted for just over 19 hours of typical-day use. On a day where I used the 360 for two Maps-navigated car trips, the watch shut down after 15 hours. However, assuming you get around eight hours of sleep, during which you can charge the watch (none of the Android Wear models offer built-in sleep tracking, so you won’t need to use the 360 at night), this relatively short battery life isn’t a dealbreaker. And if you turn off the ambient screen mode from the get-go, you may get close to 26 hours of battery life, as I did.

Others who tested the 360 found similar waking-hours battery life. Gizmodo saw no problem with the 360’s ambient screen mode off, and when on, “it should still last you until the sun goes down.” And it’s worth noting that Gizmodo’s take was written before a late-September firmware update for the 360 that specifically addressed battery life. After that update, a Reddit thread collected enthusiastic praise, with many noting that their devices were finally all-day reliable. Amazon reviewers, while still cautious in their recommendations, definitely noticed a battery boost after the update, with some updating their 360 ratings.

This modest battery life would likely be a dealbreaker if not for the fact that most other Android Wear watches won’t get you to the next day, either. The exceptions are the AMOLED-based LG G Watch R and the ASUS ZenWatch (more on them in a bit). Older, chunkier Android Wear watches, as well as Sony’s SmartWatch, have notably better battery life, but you can feel the weight of that battery life on your wrist.

It’s also worth noting that the Android Wear team is quite aware of battery life concerns. Another Wear update configured ambient-screen mode to automatically turn off when the watch’s battery has only 15 percent remaining. Unfortunately, having the screen off means more tapping, button-pushing, or vigorous raising of your arm (to wake the watch’s screen up) whenever you want to search, request things, or see the time. And displaying the time, all the time, is something any watch should do.

Finally, things aren’t all rosy when it comes to looks. At 1.5 inches (38 millimeters) across, and thick, the 360 is certainly a “men’s watch” when it comes to size. And the circular display is not entirely circular—a thin, black band covers the bottom of the display. (Early reviews frequently called this section “the flat tire.”) It’s far less noticeable on a watch face with a black background, but with a lighter background, it’s hard to miss.

The not-round bottom, or “flat tire,” of the Moto 360’s display.

Granted, the “flat” is there for a reason—it hosts the 360’s ambient-light sensor and display-driving hardware that would otherwise require a thicker bezel around the display. And I found that I didn’t notice the strip as much after a few days of wearing, and focusing more on notifications. Still, it’s there.

You might also notice in the photo, above, a harsh clipping of pixels at the edge of the display. Like “the flat tire,” it’s there, and it’s indeed something you’ll notice, especially when you first start using the watch; also like the “flat,” the pixel issue is more noticeable with lighter watch faces.

Android Wear as a platform

Much has been written about Android Wear as a notification-handling, keep-your-phone-in-your-pocket, voice-controlled platform—most notably at Ars Technica, The Verge, and The Guardian. To summarize many, many links: Android Wear still feels very new, few developers have yet released useful apps for it, and battery life is a significant concern. But, as with the Pebble Steel, having notifications on your wrist can save you from having to look at your phone, which can be a meaningful convenience for some.

Still, we recommend the Pebble Steel over any Android Wear watch, for a few good reasons. From most to least obvious:

Android Wear watches work only with Android phones.

The Pebble Steel’s e-paper screen is generally easier to read—in all conditions—than the screens on current Android Wear smartwatches.

Android Wear’s shorter battery life can leave you stranded on long or phone-heavy days.

For those with lower-powered, non-“flagship” phones, Android Wear’s resource demands are higher, and you’ll experience lag while sending voice input to and receiving a response from your phone.

With Android Wear, many tasks require voice input, which is not always possible (or polite).

On Android Wear devices, what happens when you “dismiss” a notification varies from app to app—sometimes the notification is archived, sometimes it’s simply dismissed.

On Android Wear, when something goes wrong with a voice command, the watch will just give up and report itself as “offline,” rather than asking you to try again.

It can take a lot of time and effort to fine-tune which Google Now and app notifications you want to show up on your Android Wear watch.

Running with a Wear watch can be aggravating, unless you run like “5” dances in A Charlie Brown Christmas: Raising and twisting your arm, as if to look at it, activates Android Wear’s “OK Google” screen, which silences your headphones until you dismiss it or (accidentally) search something with your voice.

If you are really, truly impressed on a regular basis with how Google Now keeps you informed on your phone, and you turn to it often, Android Wear is something you’ll probably love…

To put it more succinctly: If you are really, truly impressed on a regular basis with how Google Now keeps you informed on your phone, and you turn to it often, Android Wear is something you’ll probably love—assuming you’re willing to put the required work into configuring it. However, if you just want to see certain notifications on your wrist, you’ll want to stick with the Pebble Steel.

There are smartwatches that do not run Android Wear, including the Microsoft Band, the MetaWatch, and Sony’s non-Android-based SmartWear. Many don’t look appealing enough to wear for most occasions, and few have impressed critics enough when it comes to functionality to merit broad recommendation. With the exceptions of those specifically noted here, we dropped such models from contention early on.

We tested most of the many watches that run Android Wear. The Asus ZenWatch came very close to being our Android Wear pick. Its relatively thin body, almost-as-stylish band (which can be easily swapped with other standard bands using a quick-release pin), curved and well-machined body, and cohesive color scheme stood out from the rubber-and-aluminum competition. As with the 360, the ZenWatch’s companion app offers watch-face customization and a good number of extra tools. And the $200 tag, the lowest of any new-release Android Wear watch, would seem like a good price of entry for such early-days tech. The ZenWatch gave me 25 hours of operation with its OLED-powered ambient screen set to always-on, and 33 hours with it off. In raw numbers, that’s a jump up from the 360, but in reality, it’s still just a full day’s operation, with perhaps a bit more breathing room. On the software side, ASUS made the bad choice to nag ZenWatch owners on every power-up or restart to install various apps that work best with ASUS phones. Most of all, the larger, bezel-framed face (40 mm wide by 50 mm high) looks even more awkward on smaller wrists than the 360, and the ZenWatch’s leather band is available in only very light brown, very dark brown, or orange. The ZenWatch doesn’t look bad on my wrist, but more people will be able to fit the 360 into their style.

The Zenwatch looks quite large on smaller wrists.

The LG G Watch R is the other notable round-faced Android Wear watch I tested. LG has opted to shove more sensors and display circuitry into a large surrounding bezel, marked with hour notches, to maintain a fully circular screen. It also offers also a notably larger battery: 410 milliamp hours (mAh) in the G Watch R, versus 320 mAh in the Moto 360. The result is a very chunky, heavy watch that can last a very long time. I saw nearly 33 hours of battery life with ambient screen mode on and somewhat light use, and a remarkable 43 hours with ambient screen mode off. Style-wise, to paraphrase Henry Ford, you can have any color you like, as long as it’s black. More than one member of my panel noted that the leather strap and buckle felt cheap and uncomfortable. Plus, it’s $300. With the exception of multi-day battery life when its screen is inconveniently off, it doesn’t look or function better than the Moto 360.
The Sony SmartWatch 3 makes some interesting promises: a display built for direct-light viewing (Sony calls it “transflective”); GPS circuitry on the watch itself; independent storage space; easily swappable, sporty-color, waterproof, silicone bands (from which you can easily pop out the core watch piece); and Bluetooth headphone connectivity. You can even get a stainless-steel version. Indeed, the SmartWatch 3’s display is fairly visible in sunlight and darkness. Based on individual days of wearing, I estimated that the SmartWatch 3’s largest-in-class battery would last 34 hours with the ambient screen mode on, and 46 hours with the ambient screen mode off. Since those early December tests, Android Wear has implemented an automatic battery-saving mode at low battery levels. Gizmodo cited 48-hour battery life in early February with the device’s ambient screen on. Other recent reviews report “two days per charge” (varying significantly with GPS use), “48 hours,” and “almost a full 48 hours,” so it appears that the SmartWatch 3 does better now, and lasts longer over the last percentages of battery level, than we saw early on.

However, the device’s upsides come with significant downsides. The silicone bands attract (and grab) a good bit of lint. The screen may be visible, but it doesn’t look very good (for example, as detailed by CNET). It also suffers from major interface problems, such as how painful it is to get music onto the watch (through Google Play Music only). And while the independent watch GPS tracks your running or biking stats, the watch doesn’t sync with every exercise app: only RunKeeper (though just as a very basic tracker), Ghostracer, Sony’s own Lifelog app, and a few other sub-optimal options. At $250, it might be worth it for someone with a dueling enthusiasm for fitness and Android Wear, but you’re probably better off with a dedicated fitness device.

LG’s other offering, the LG G Watch, has this going for it right now: It’s inexpensive. At about $140 as of this writing, you can get a very square Android Wear watch with a rubber watch band. It has no heart-rate sensors, and the lack of any actual button (minus a paper-clip-accessible hole on the back) might make you a bit nervous about crashes or freezes. But if you don’t care about aesthetics, or if you just want to try Android Wear for as little money as possible, it’s there.

Samsung’s $200 Gear Live watch (not to be confused with the Gear 2, the Gear S, the Gear Fit, or the Gear 2 Neo) is a huge watch with a big battery—it looks like a watch from a 1970s show about stockbrokers from the 2000s. It has a decent screen and heart rate sensor, but its two-notch latch comes loose fairly easily; its charging cradle is annoying to clip on and easy to lose; and the clasp at the end of the band scrapes against desks and laptops.

The Gear 2 is a lot like the Gear Live, except it works only with Samsung phones and tablets/phablets, and it runs a very misguided version of Tizen for its OS: It crams four buttons onto each tiny home screen, its motions feel odd and unintuitive, and almost all of its advanced features require a Samsung-built app, such as S Health, to use. The Gear 2 includes a camera, but it’s good only for very bad photos or creepy intrusions. The Gear 2 Neo is the same watch minus the camera and heart sensor. The Gear S is an updated version with a curved screen, independent network connectivity (no phone needed), and way, way too many functions crammed into a tiny screen, running that same painful OS.

What of the independent, often crowdfunded, smartwatches that we didn’t wear, test, or review? Most of them arrived with the sound of a softened thud, and you haven’t heard of them or seen them on anyone’s wrist since. For example, the Omate X, has a laggy display, relies on push only push notifications, and requires manual reactivation to turn on the screen after it powers down to save battery life. Others, like the Kreyos, flamed out in spectacular fashion, as non-technical entrepreneurs rode a wave of ridiculous optimism of what a smartwatch can and should do.

What to look forward to

Pebble announced the Pebble Time, a true sequel to the first Pebble watch, with the launch of a Kickstarter campaign on Feb. 23. Backers can pay $160 for a watch in one of three colors that Pebble claims will ship in May 2015, while retail buyers can get the Pebble Time for $200 “later this year.”

A week after that, Pebble announced the Pebble Time Steel, a fashion-minded upgrade to the Pebble Time in the same way the original Steel was to the Pebble. For $250 through Kickstarter, or $300 retail, the Steel adds an all-stainless-steel curved watch case in silver, black, or gold finishes, and leather or stainless steel straps (with quick-release swapping, like the Pebble Time). There is one extra bit, though: the battery life hops from a maximum of seven to up to 10 days, while the Time Steel is only 1mm thicker than the Time. Pebble says Kickstarter backers of the Time will be able to trade up to the Steel, which is set to ship in June.

Key among the Pebble Time and Time Steel’s new features is a color e-paper display, replacing the black and white of the original Pebble and Steel. From the images released, it seems the new Time watches will not have remarkably higher-resolution displays than the first Pebbles, and the colors seem to be implemented one or two at a time—like a Game Boy Color upgrade to an existing platform. The trade-off is, once again, a battery life; Pebble says the Time will last up to seven days–two days longer than our current pick–while the Time Steel will last three days longer than that.

Also new is a microphone for voice replies to SMS, Hangouts, or other messaging apps (though iPhone owners can only reply to Gmail, as of launch). The Pebble OS is also getting an overhaul, one that shifts the focus to notifications, and moving forward and back in time through them, rather than manually opening apps to get at data. Existing Pebble apps will be forward-compatible with the Time and Time Steel, and the original Pebble and Steel are due to get a timeline-focused OS upgrade as well.

Finally, Pebble says the Time will be “20% thinner” than the existing Pebble (9.5mm), with a curved design “that’s comfortable on any wrist.” The 22mm standard watch band will have a quick-release, giving buyers far more options than the current Pebble’s custom bands and tiny screws that are easily lost or stripped. At 7mm by 40mm, the Time and Time Steel are slightly wider than the original Pebble and Steel, having a faster processor, and with charging and data ports moved to the bottom of the body. The new watches also have visibly wider colorized stainless steel bezels around their displays.

Pebble also detailed the capabilities of the “Smart Straps” available for the Time and Time Steel. Third-party developers will, if they can fit them in, be able to add GPS, heart rate monitors, NFC chips, and even battery extenders to the Pebble, snapping on in seconds and attaching through a small port on the top of the back of the case.

LG is planning yet another Android smartwatch, this time with an all-metal, slightly thinner profile. The LG Urbane has the same round OLED display as the G Watch R, but has a narrower bezel. At 45.5 x 52.2 mm, however, it’s still a good bit chunkier than the Pebble Steel (34 x 46 mm), and the Steel is about the same size as the slimmer Apple watch aimed at women or people with smaller wrists. The Urbane’s leather band is replaceable, the watch is dust- and water-resistant, and it will have the same heart-rate function and ambient mode for battery saving as the G Watch R.

There will also be an LTE variant called the LG Urbane LTE that can make phone calls and receive text messages without the need for a companion smartphone. The display and internals will match the Urbane, but will add 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, NFC for mobile payments, and a bigger 700mAh battery. But the biggest difference is that it will run WebOS instead of Android. LG hasn’t revealed a price for either yet. We do know the Urbane will be coming to the U.S. via AT&T. Once there’s a date, we’ll update this guide.

Huawei unveiled Huawei Watch, an Android Wear watch, at Mobile World Congress on March 1. It’s most notable for its materials and design. Inspired by the “golden age of watch design,” the fully circular watch is made from stainless steel and has a face of sapphire crystal, suggesting a quite durable body. The straps are leather or stainless steel, the display relatively high-resolution (400 x 400), and the Watch’s looks and relatively modest size are winning early press adoration for premium pedigree and being the most gender-neutral Android Wear watch yet. We’ll be seeking to get some hands-on time with the Huawei Watch soon.

This past September, after more than a year of rampant speculation, Apple announced the Apple Watch, which could end up being a top competitor to the Pebble Steel and Android Wear watches—when it arrives in April 2015.

What we know so far about the Apple Watch includes:

It will be available in small and large sizes, 38 mm and 42 mm in height, respectively. This is seriously noteworthy—as mentioned above, current smartwatches tend to look huge on women and on men with smaller wrists.

It will be available in three levels of material and finish, with various choices of bands. All these options will fall broadly into three tiers: the the Watch Sport, the Watch, and the Watch Edition. The entry-level Sport will come with a “fluoroelastomer” band (in five colors), an anodized-aluminum body, and Ion-X glass. The standard Watch will use a stainless-steel body (in polished steel or space black), sapphire glass, and your choice from six bands (three leather versions, a link bracelet, a Milanese loop, and a high-performance fluoroelastomer, according to Apple). Finally, the Edition’s body will be made of hardened 18-karat gold, with sapphire glass and a number of luxury band options.

Unsurprisingly, the Apple Watch will require an iPhone—specifically, an iPhone 5 or later.

Apple’s initial announcements indicate that the Apple Watch platform should be comparable to Android Wear in functionality—notifications, fitness tracking, miniaturized apps, and so on. However, we suspect that we’ll see more functionality revealed once the watch actually becomes available.

Based on what we’ve seen so far, Apple’s Watch’s interface will take some getting used to, even for users of the current crop of smartwatches—and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Rather than relying only on touch controls, the Watch repurposes the traditional watch crown (used to set the time on “real” watches) as an input control, similar to the Click Wheel on older iPods. You’ll be able to rotate the crown to scroll and zoom, and press it like a button. The Watch will also, of course, have a touchscreen, but it will be able to distinguish between hard and soft touches for different commands.

Rather than try and squeeze existing iOS apps into the Apple Watch’s smaller display, the company has redesigned a number of them for the new platform. When you receive messages, for example, the watch will offer you a number of stock responses based on contextual clues, or allow you to respond with animated/tweakable emoji, or with a dictated response (using Siri). You can also send messages that include little doodles, subtle vibrations, or even recordings of your heartbeat. The Apple Watch will also be able to be used as a walkie talkie of sorts; as a remote control for your iPhone’s camera and music; for navigation via Maps; for viewing your calendars; and a whole lot more. And in November 2014, Apple released an API (application programming interface) for the Apple Watch platform, so developers will be able to do more interesting things.

The Apple Pay mobile-payments feature that debuted with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus will also come to the Apple Watch, letting you use your phone’s Apple Pay feature through the watch. In fact, the Apple Watch will extend Apple Pay all the way back to the iPhone 5, letting you make mobile payments even if you don’t have the newest model of iPhone. (Alas, using the Apple Watch for Apple Pay won’t give you the additional security of the iPhone’s Touch ID fingerprint recognition system.)

Another big point of emphasis for the Apple Watch is health and fitness. The watch will include two dedicated apps, Activity and Workout, to motivate, track, and record daily activity. Activity tracks progress towards three separate activity goals: Move, Exercise, and Stand. The Workout app allows you to set and track workout goals, such as running for 5 miles, and records data from exercise sessions. The Apple Watch measures these activities and their intensity with an accelerometer and optical heart-rate sensor, and all fitness and exercise data gets synced with the iPhone’s Health app. However, if you want GPS data from your workout, you’ll need to bring your iPhone along with you—as with most other smartwatches, the watch itself doesn’t have dedicated GPS circuitry. (Apple has yet to mention any sleep tracking features.) If you’re already tied into an existing fitness ecosystem, it looks like some of the major companies might be trying to play nicely with Apple Watch—for example, Jawbone recently announced that it would open its UP ecosystem to other devices, including Pebble, Android Wear, smartphones, and Apple Watch.

Other things we don’t yet know include:

How long will the battery last between charges? Apple CEO Tim Cook made a brief mention, back in September, of charging the Watch nightly, and we know it uses a small, inductive charging pad. But we have no idea how long the battery will last on a charge, and that could be a make-or-break factor for a lot of people.

Of course, as we mentioned above, design and appearance are key for a smartwatch, and we’re anxious to see the Apple Watch in person. Its design is in many ways reminiscent of the original iPhone, and it won’t appeal to everyone. Combine this with a fairly high starting price and all the things we don’t yet know, and you’ve got a potentially interesting device with a lot of uncertainty surrounding it. The opinion from fashion experts has been mixed, with some admiring it and others criticizing. Probably the most in-depth look has come from watch specialist site Hodinkee, which published an excellent and detailed watch-based review of the Apple Watch, coming at it from the position of a timepiece. While overall very positive (especially with respect to the build quality and available bands), the site did criticize the watch’s thickness and wondered about its long-term value, as with all smartwatches, compared to similarly priced “real” watches.

At CES 2015, Garmin announced the Vivoactive, which is a $250 smartwatch with fitness-tracking and GPS sports-watch features that’s set to debut early this year. It’s aimed as a crossover between a fitness tracker and a smartwatch; based on the available information, when it comes time to review it, we’ll probably consider it more in the former category than the latter. The thin, color-touchscreen device reportedly gets 10 hours of battery life with GPS enabled, or three weeks with GPS turned off. Along with syncing metrics like step count, calories, and distance to your smartphone, the Vivoactive can use its GPS circuitry to measure your daily run and can connect to cycling sensors. The smartwatch is waterproof to 50 meters and can record swim workout metrics such as number of lengths, paces by length, metrics by interval, and for the full session. (We’ll be very interested to see how well this works.) For those who like to golf, the Vivoactive also features maps and data for over 38,000 courses worldwide and the capability to keep score.

The Vivoactive can also display Caller ID, missed calls, texts, and more from compatible iOS and Android devices, and can act as a remote control for your smartphone’s music player. But it’s the Connect IQ app platform that has the potential to really maximize the functionality of the Vivoactive. With Connect IQ, Garmin is allowing third-party companies to build and run apps on the Vivoactive and a number of other new Garmin devices. Some examples that Garmin is touting include the calendar app Tempo and weather forecasts with AccuWeather.

Alcatel also got in on the fun at CES with the Alcatel OneTouch Watch, which will have an asking price of just $150. Cribbing heavily from the look of the Moto 360, early hands-on reports from the show floor were less than stellar. Gizmodo said that the device didn’t quite live up to the Moto 360 that it borrowed so much of its style from, has a poor band, and lacks third-party integration. In fact, it works only through Alcatel’s own app, with only 14 included watch apps so far. TheNextWeb criticized the OneTouch’s low frame rate, though thought the watch might be able to carve out a place for itself as a color smartwatch that’s platform agnostic. DigitalTrends said “Alcatel’s new Watch smart watch is cheap and attractive, but it doesn’t provide the best user experience.”

Also at CES 2015, Audi presented a handsome, stainless-steel and sapphire-crystal prototype smartwatch made in collaboration with LG. What makes this device different from the rest is that instead of running Android Wear, it’s powered by software based on WebOS—yes, the same software that ran the now discontinued Palm Pre smartphone. The unnamed smartwatch can be paired to an Audi for unlocking via NFC and a number of other functions including voice memos, music playback, and a calendar when paired with a smartphone. We don’t know if this watch become available anytime soon, but we’ll keep an eye out for it. That said, without the baked-in support of iOS or Android, nor the wide third-party compatibility of Pebble, it’ll be a hard sell.

Timex announced in August its own entry into the world of smartwatches, the One GPS+. Partnering with Qualcomm and AT&T, this $400 smartwatch doesn’t need to link to a smartphone—it has built-in GPS and 3G, so it can handle tracking and mapping locally and lets you communicate with other folks via instant messaging or email. Early reviews have singled it out as very fitness-focused, sporting clunky software and a hardly responsive screen. It’s currently available for pre-order for February 2015 shipping.

HP has teamed up with fashion designer Michael Bastian to offer the MB Chronowing, currently available for order starting at $350. It apparently ties in with iOS and Android apps to provide push notifications. On the design front, it features a 44mm-diameter face with interchangeable bands. We still don’t know much more about it, but the face apparently sports a monochrome, low-resolution LCD display, which should mean long battery life between charges (the company promises up to a week) but limited functionality. It will also be water resistant up to 5 atmospheres, but we haven’t gotten our hands on one to test features or compatibility with other apps and tools.

Meta has announced a line of smartwatches, now available for order, which promises to significantly improve on previous versions. (That’s a good thing, because we weren’t at all impressed with the company’s initial efforts.) And while the new crop of Samsung Gear models are still limited to just pairing with Samsung devices, they at least show improvements over last year’s offerings. Here’s hoping we see even more progress in the next round.

And, of course, with CES just around the corner, we expect to hear about many new models to be released in 2015. We’ll be testing many of those as we update this guide going forward.

Wrapping it up

If you’re intent on having a watch that talks to your phone, the $200 Pebble Steel is the way to go for most people. Not only does it have the best battery life, the most-mature ecosystem, and the widest compatibility of the smartwatches currently available, it’s also arguably the best looking and the least bulky. For fans of Google Now, Android, or searching or dictating with your voice, our Android Wear pick is the Moto 360. But keep in mind that this is a category that’s growing quickly, and plenty of new models—including the Apple Watch—are on the way.

Spot on. I got a Pebble in the first or second batch of shipments and I’d been pretty excited for it, but the complete lack of apps left me underwhelmed within a week. A friend recently gave it to her son and for him the novelty factor is making it awesome.

I differ only in that I think the next generation of these won’t be sufficiently better. I’m not trying again for quite awhile.

Enjoyed your interview on CBC!!!
So how close are we to “Dick Tracy” video watch?????

Anonymous

I’ve been using a Sony Smartwatch for almost a year. It does exactly what I wanted: shows me who’s calling, texting, or emailing me so I know whether to stop and dig the phone out of my pocket, especially while driving. I charge it every 3-4 days. There are a lot of 3rd-party apps on Google Play, and some of them are excellent, like the remote viewfinder and shutter control for the phone’s camera.
There are certainly things about it that could use improvement, but I don’t regret the purchase. A brighter screen and BT headset capability are things I would like to see. The only real problem I have with it is that it sometimes has trouble reconnecting if it goes out of range of the phone. I have to toggle BT on the phone to reconnect, but I think that is a problem on the phone side and not the watch side.
Sam Biddle at Gizmodo obviously did not read the 1-page instructions that came with the Sony Smartwatch. For example, he complained that it didn’t respond reliably to two-finger taps. That’s because it doesn’t use two-finger taps at all! Had he read the instructions, he would have known that. It actually responds well to the gestures it does use.
I think a smartwatch is something you need to live with for a month or so before you can really appreciate it.

pierce gordon

i have had my sony smart watch 4 months now, it is one of the best smart watches out their, the only thing I dont like about it is the lack of running its own apps to be able to do anything the watch must be connceted to the base phone

Shaggy

Dig the phone out of your pocket while driving?!!!! Yeah, that would be a smart move. (note the sarcasm)

CSX321

Noted, but that’s why I said *stop* and dig the phone out of my pocket. BTW, I no longer have any Bluetooth problems with the watch and Android 4.3, so the problem was with the phone (or rather with Android). It’s been working perfectly for months now.

Jeanette Tan

Was one of the earliest to order. Ordered a red pebble on Kickstarter. Waited. Watched the later people get their watches first. Waited. Waited. Gave up waiting. Changed to a black pebble. Delivery tracking number did not work. Finally got the watch. Should have just picked up a pebble from the beach.

Anonymous

Funny you dismiss Sony’s Smartwatch by dissing Android. You might have heard that several of us are using Android these days. I’ve got a Pebble, too. And, frankly, there is NO COMPARISON in terms of the quantity and quality of the apps. Unless you’re a golfer using Freecaddie (which also requires Android by the way), I’m still searching for something useful to do with the Pebble. Email, phone, and text alerts were available on Sony’s Smartwatch before Pebble was still a dream. Want status alerts for your servers? Sony Smartwatch. Want realtime images of traffic conditions near your current location? Sony Smartwatch. Want realtime weather information for your current location? Sony Smartwatch. Get it now?

Tin City

Just picked up this watch at Amazon and got a great deal on a used one. I’m so excited that I would like to share the discount that I received with anyone who is looking to get this awesome smart watch: http://amzn.to/10EaPEn – Wow, they don’t have many left.

Anonymous

Got my pebble a week or so ago now, LOVE IT! It’s great! Don’t have to pull my phone out anymore for every notification, tons of good looking watchfaces people are coming out with everyday. There have even been apps and games released, and the full sdk hasn’t even been released yet. It’s only going to get better once the full sdk is released!

Anonymous

Another Pebble early funder here. The most frustrating thing for me was something that I haven’t seen mentioned elsewhere, perhaps because most of the reviewers were men (meaning generally larger wrists). As someone with fairly small wrists, the Pebble was actually painful to wear, bruising my wrists bones whenever they shifted. Sure, this isn’t something that is going to affect everyone, but combine that with constantly having to re-sync with the phone, and it was just too much trouble. Luckily, I made a tidy profit off of it, and was still able to support new technology.

Jimmy Kurian

Casio released G-Shock that’s blue tooth enabled, would that qualify a smart watch?

Anonymous

I mention the Casio G-Shock GB-6900 in the piece. It really only has incredibly basic functions.

Moff

Poor review, factually inaccurate and relies on other people’s old reviews. The fact that the Pebble is crap with iOS is more to do with the strangled and outdated OS than the hardware. I’ve a Sony and don’t recognise any of the criticisms in here.

I have been watching the Agent smart watch for the past few months, waiting for it to (finally) be released. The wireless charging is a great feature, but with this new Pebble Steel release, I may not be tracking the Agent quite so closely anymore…

Tran He

Imagine that you have your phone/tablet, glasses, and the “watch”. Every morning you put on your glasses, which is more akin to a pair of regular glasses or sunglasses, it will show you nothing, until you look down at your wrist where the “watch” is. With a push of a button on the watch, your glass shoots out some inferred (or via other means) to find the position of the watch, and display a home screen at the position of the back of your hand. If you do see something interesting, say title of an email that you want to read, you turn over your hand, and full phone screen will be displayed at the palm of your hand. When you are done, close your palm or simply drop your hand out of sight, phone screen goes away. You don’t have to say any command words and app screen will not occupy your entire vision or distract you. This is taking the physical phone out of your hands, freeing them yet giving them more power. You see what you want to see, at the location where you want to see it, using the most intuitive instruments – your hand, not your speech. I see more than just freeing your hand, when you have your personal spatial dimension in virtual reality, there won’t be any app competing estate on a 5 inch or smaller screen anymore. Each app can have its own screen with a coordinate relative to where the watch is. All you have to do is literally “browsing” them like books on the shelf, and shove them away at will. I feel powerful already just thinking about it!

CLKAMG

Ok, I own the Samsung Galaxy Gear. Terribly inuttiative? swipe down bc the camera is on top to bring the camera, swipe up bc dialpad is usually on the bottom. and swipe left or right for apps is terribly inutiative? my battery lasts 2 days! This is my favorite website for buying tech bc i buy everything and this is the first time where the review of the Galaxy gear is a bit off. To activate the time, (screen turn on) the motion does not need to be terribly over exaggerated like my iPhone 5S to use Siri (raise to use siri feature)

battery is excellent, unless youre using the wa

CLKAMG

And guys don’t let this wrong review of the galaxy gear turn you off to this website. I’m a tech enthusiast or collector. I own almost everything on here and this is really really great website. I think you should use the Galaxy Gear a little more to condition the battery. Out of 12 hours my first day my battery went to 78% Now i did not make a lot of phone calls on my watch but i played with it and S voice a bit. Of course you can turn off (raise to turn on face feature) to save even more battery. Sorry f

Gary Cushing

I just found a new smart watch call HOT Watch. You should check it out will be available in December. It has a talk feature that is exclusive to this watch. You can have private talks also has hand controls.

Watch

I had had a Pebble for a few months now. Think of it as a 2nd display and its amazing. Thats all “smart” watches should be

kjake

The Pebble has vastly improved with the release of the 2.0 firmware a few days ago. That, and the iOS 7 release, have removed most annoyances of the Pebble for me and now I wear it daily.

http://www.oneresolveweb.com/mobile.html Sofia Errasta

its really awesome watch. I like it…….!!

Joshua Ochs

This review really needs to be thoroughly rewritten. The conclusion may end up the same, but several areas are disjointed (e.g., mentioning the new 2014 app store – not 2013 as written presently – but then immediately saying you’re limited to what is bundled with the Pebble, or talking about how kludgy iPhone notifications are, but a paragraph or two later mentioning that was all fixed in iOS 7). The bitterness of Best Buy shipments happening ahead of some backer shipments is also now ancient history, and doesn’t affect anyone buying in today.

Given that this is one of the biggest consumer website for tech-hungry anglophones from around the world, I’m going to post the following question: who here are actually thinking about buying a smart watch? I’m very, very skeptical. Remember all the skepticism surrounded the iPad? Well back then I thought “OK, nobody will need this thing, but it sure as hell will be cool to have one? I mean, an arm computer with with very long battery life, a beautiful touch-sensitive screen and loads of great software … I might just get one.” But a smart watch just doesn’t work in my mind. Not only will you look stupid answer phone calls on it, it’s not possible to answers calls on such a thing. Just image, are you going to put this thing against your ear to answer it? Are you going to hear it on loud speaker when your out and about? Ok, that may not be its primary function in most people’s minds, but some of the concepts touted around have just been a bit ridiculous really. I think a watch that displays notifications and perhaps tells you heart rate could be marginally useful, but is that real “smart”. The whole things feels like “let’s make something for them to buy … quick!”.

So anyway, going back to my quick poll idea: Are you remotely interested in a smart watch?

Best wishes

André, Birmingham, UK

http://thewirecutter.com/ tony kaye

Once the larger tech co’s get involved, these will be very desirable and I’m speculating, but very popular. Nobody has nailed it yet (like the iPad), so after Apple & Google get involved, expect to see the market flooded and lots of great stuff.

John Gooch

I’m definitely not going to get one until the market for them matures. That includes sturdy construction , attractive appearance, iOS Integration, useful (to me) features, and a price that won’t have me questioning my purchase daily.

mitchellvii

Why do people love this smartwatch so much? It is incredibly ugly and the screen is pure crap. Don’t get it.

Mark

I own one, the black original.. I like it because it give me the time, day, date, weather, temp, and ALL of my notification at a glance.. I can hang up a call from it in a meeting, but I can see who is calling first. Without alerting others that I had a call. It’s very like and 100% works for me all the time. The screen looks better in person. It is a rather ’90’s style looking LCD face, but it is clear and very easy to read. Fernandez

Don

Just got a Pebble Steel. It’s actually good and works with my iPhone flawlessly. Hardly an essential purchase, mind, but it looks good and works well.

Yale Landsberg

How about a real really smart clock face/watch face on a smartwatch instead of just an app running on it? This is a tweet I recently have begun sending out about the difference. Hope you find it thought-provoking and maybe even cool! -)

ive been considering buying a smart watch but the primary thing i do on my phone is texting. Is there an a speaker and microphone on it like i could answer a call in speakerphone manner? do the touch screens give you the option to actually reply to a text instead of just viewing them? if not the devices dont seem worth buying

frankyhal

I use my Pebble with bluetooth handset and with the application “Pebble SMS Voice”, thanks to this application I can listen to the incoming messages and reply through voice dictation.

http://thewirecutter.com/ tony kaye

There is no speaker/mic unfortunately.

Patel

Had to return mine for a full refund. Although I loved the design, it still needs some work as far as the functionality goes Waiting to try the moto360

http://thewirecutter.com/ tony kaye

Mine has been terrific. What happened to yours?

shukero

This has happened on my kickstarter version before. For some reason the watch firmware sometimes screws up. I just reset my watch (middle button + back button for 3 seconds) this will reboot the watch and it will be all good again. This has happened to me about 5 times in the past 2 years I’ve had it.

misterinvisible

Kreyos finally started to ship their Meteor watches. I received mine yesterday. The software/firmware is extremely buggy. (Their forums are on fire right now.)

Software aside, the main feature distinguishing the Meteor from the Pebble and others is the inclusion of a speaker and mic. So, yes, I can issue Siri commands to my iPhone via my watch, but the audio on the speaker is horrendous. At this point, I’m very disappointed in the Kreyos Meteor and am hoping to get a refund.

Bart

To put it bluntly, you use that phrase too much.

Watanabe

You mentioned that some watches didn’t make the cut because they don’t support low-energy bluetooth (BLE). It should be noted that the Pebble doesn’t *require* BLE to function; I used my Kickstarter Pebble with an old Android 2.3 phone with BT 2.1 for quite a while. Their chipset is compatible with both, in case you need that.

When Pebble moved to the 2.x firmware, they dropped support for Android 2.3 and stopped updating the old phone app. 2.x requires new watch apps and a new phone app for Android 4+. Sticking with the 1.x watch firmware limits you to whatever apps and watch faces were produced for 1.x, so I don’t recommend it.

http://thewirecutter.com/ tony kaye

But then whats the point of having it without all the great features? I can’t think of many people out there running 2.3 with a brand new Pebble hoping that they’ll work together with all the new (added) functionality.

Also, if the Pebble comes shipped with the newest firmware, you’re kind of SOL, right?

Joe Cassara

Beautiful watch — I had one for a while, and just bought my father one as an early Christmas gift. It’s fine if they want to stay in the low-end, but as of October 2014, they need to up their game a bit before Android Wear and Apple Watch eat their lunch. Double the resolution and add some kind of touch, at the very least.

Mike

The wait you have indicated for the LG Smartwatch R may not be worth it as the battery life is still no better than 2 days and the OLED screen can suffer burn in!

Better off buying the original Pebble in the short term and look again in a years time.

Romeo Izdead

complete noob article. what’s wrong with testers those days. About the sony smartwatch 3 well it’s the best end of the story. pebble is nice but really what is their future facing apple, google or microsoft? then we have all the others, 1 to 2 days battery life, ok, the sw3 isealy go for 3 to 4 on normal usage. the gps of the watch track everything from step to run to bike to swim, you just need runkeeper for that, talking about a spec and saying it doesnt do anything because you didn’t use an app to take advantage of it make you seem dumb. the fact that it is painful to put music has nothing to do with the watch but with android wear, and when you say painful, i wouldn’t put it like that, its surely more painful than usb plug but it’s pretty fast and since the watch has only really 2gb of storage (since the os and few apps take already 2gb, then it’s like a 40 minutes wait to fill it. second thing the watch is supposed to be an extension of the phone, not a replacement, so the choice of google music to transfert music make sense, you can delete and add music from your watch with your cellphone on the go (well not anymore though since your watch need to be charged to 100% or plugged and charging in order to start the transfer) but this is a google mistake and its the same for any android watch under lillipop. Now this article is dumb for the first reason really. question. what do you think people will choose between android wear, ios wear, microsoft wear and pebble os? I guess you already know, like for cell phone, people will go for big company because they are safer, you are sure you’ll have update, sure to find your loved services and app etc. then where do you think the devs will focus their efforts? well the same android, ios and microsoft. I choose the sony because im sporty and run everyday, so its nice to be able to run without my phone, just bluetooth headphone and the watch. i got runkeeper to track my run and my music on the watch. like baner would say “what up?”. non of the others have a gps or wifi. and on top of that it’s 50 dollars cheaper. Also really, the peeble looks like shit, the sw3 is not a beauty pageant, but what about the horrible 70s style design of the peeble? really people if you are looking for the watch of 2014, it’s the sony sw3 not any other. cheers

mdime

Sony’s Smartwatch 3 now has an app that will record GPS (and heart rate, if using a BTE HRM) and automatically send the data to Strava. It’s called Ghostracer, and though it’s still in BETA I’ve found that it works pretty well. Paired with one of the interval timer apps that’s available on Android Wear it makes a pretty good workout option. Feature wise it’s definitely not on par with a dedicated GPS watch like a Garmin but if you’re interested in other Android Wear functionality than it’s pretty compelling.

Kevin Purdy

That’s intriguing! Odd question, but will that app only work with Sony phones? Or is an Android Wear app that should work with any old phone? Sony apps tends to cross into Sony-only on occasion.

mdime

It’s an Android Wear app so it should work on any phone. I have a Nexus 4 and it works great. The developer has a Google+ community page you can find from the Play store if you have more detailed questions.

Casey

You have “minutes” on the vertical axis…I think you want that to say “hours”.

http://thewirecutter.com/ tony kaye

Thanks!

Jake

If you want a smartwatch good for swimming, water resistant, tracking activity and sleep automatically and to look like a luxury watch just choose Withings Activite: http://bit.ly/1FctFIY

With the help of a graphic designer, we tested 11 iPad styluses to find the best for notes and sketching. The Adonit Jot Pro has a clear plastic disc tip so you can see what you’re drawing or writing (a feature the competition universally lacks). It’s also comfortable to hold and it most closely mimicked the feeling of pen on paper during our tests.